1. THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.--The first man who contributed to
the restoration of Italian poetry was Lorenzo de' Medici (1448-1492), the
grandson of Cosmo. In the brilliant society that he gathered around him, a
new era was opened in Italian literature. Himself a poet, he attempted to
restore poetry to the condition in which Petrarch had left it; although
superior in some respects to that poet, he had less power of
versification, less sweetness, and harmony, but his ideas were more
natural, and his style was more simple. He attempted all kinds of poetical
composition, and in all he displayed the versatility of his talents and
the exuberance of his imagination. But to Lorenzo poetry was but an
amusement, scarcely regarded in his brilliant political career. He
concentrated in himself all the power of the republic--he was the arbiter
of the whole political state of Italy, and from the splendor with which he
surrounded himself, and his celebrity, he received the title of Lorenzo
the Magnificent. He continued to collect manuscripts, and to employ
learned men to prepare them for printing. His Platonic Academy extended
its researches into new paths of study. The collection of antique
sculpture, the germ of the gallery of Florence, which had been established
by Cosmo, he enriched, and gave to it a new destination, which was the
occasion of imparting fresh life and vigor to the liberal arts. He
appropriated a part of his gardens to serve as a school for the study of
the antique, and placed his statues, busts, and other models of art in the
shrubberies, terraces, and buildings. Young men were liberally paid for
the copies which they made while pursuing their studies. It was this
institution that kindled the flame of genius in the breast of Michael
Angelo, and to it must be attributed the splendor which was shed by the
fine arts over the close of the fifteenth century, and which extended
rapidly from Florence throughout Italy, and over a great part of Europe.
Among the friends of Lorenzo may be mentioned Pico della Mirandola (1463-
1494), one of the most prominent men of his age, who left in his Latin and
Italian works monuments of his vast erudition and exuberant talent.
The fifteenth century closed brightly on Florence, but it was otherwise
throughout Italy. Some of its princes still patronized the sciences, but
most of them were engaged in the intrigues of ambition; and the storms
which were gathering soon burst on Florence itself. Shortly after the
death of Lorenzo, nearly the whole of Italy fell under the rule of Charles
VIII., and the voice of science and literature was drowned in the clash of
arms; military violence dispersed the learned men, and pillage destroyed
or scattered the literary treasures. Literature and the arts, banished
from their long-loved home, sought another asylum. We find them again at
Rome, cherished by a more powerful and fortunate protector, Pope Leo X.,
the son of Lorenzo (1475-1521). Though his patronage was confined to the
fine arts and to the lighter kinds of composition, yet owing to the
influence of the newly-invented art of printing, the discovery of
Columbus, and the Reformation, new energies were imparted to the age, the
Italian mind was awakened from its slumber, and prepared for a new era in
literature.
2. THE ORIGIN OF THE DRAMA AND ROMANTIC EPIC.--Among the gifted
individuals in the circle of Lorenzo, the highest rank may be assigned to
Poliziano (1454-1494). He revived on the modern stage the tragedies of the
ancients, or rather created a new kind of pastoral tragedy, on which Tasso
did not disdain to employ his genius. His "Orpheus," composed within ten
days, was performed at the Mantuan court in 1483, and may be considered as
the first dramatic composition in Italian. The universal homage paid to
Virgil had a decided influence on this kind of poetry. His Bucolics were
looked upon as dramas more poetical than those of Terence and Seneca. The
comedies of Plautus were represented, and the taste for theatrical
performances was eagerly renewed. In these representations, however, the
object in view was the restoration of the classics rather than the
amusement of the public; and the new dramatists confined themselves to a
faithful copy of the ancients. But the Orpheus of Poliziano caused a
revolution. The beauty of the verse, the charm of the music, and the
decorations which accompanied its recital, produced an excitement of
feeling and intellect that combined to open the way for the true dramatic
art.
At the same time, several eminent poets devoted their attention to that
style of composition which was destined to form the glory of Ariosto. The
trouvères chose Charlemagne and his paladins as the heroes of their poems
and romances, and these, composed for the most part in French in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were early circulated in Italy. Their
origin accorded with the vivacity of the prevailing religious sentiment,
the violence of the passions and the taste for adventures which
distinguished the first crusades; while from the general ignorance of the
times, their supernatural agency was readily admitted. But at the close of
the fifteenth century, when the poets possessed themselves of these old
romances, in order to give a variety to the adventures of their heroes,
the belief in the marvelous was much diminished, and they could not be
recounted without a mixture of mockery. The spirit of the age did not
admit in the Italian language a subject entirely serious. He who made
pretensions to fame was compelled to write in Latin, and the choice of the
vulgar tongue was the indication of a humorous subject. The language had
developed since the time of Boccaccio a character of _naïveté_ mingled
with satire, which still remains, and which is particularly remarkable in
Ariosto.
The "Morgante Maggiore" of Pulci (1431-1470) is the first of these
romantic poems. It is alternately burlesque and serious, and it abounds
with passages of great pathos and beauty. The "Orlando Innamorato" of
Boiardo (1430-1494) is a poem somewhat similar to that of Pulci. It was,
however, remodeled by Berni, sixty years after the death of the author,
and from the variety and novelty of the adventures, the richness of its
descriptions, the interest excited by its hero, and the honor rendered to
the female sex, it excels the Morgante.
3. ROMANTIC EPIC POETRY.--The romances of chivalry, which had been thus
versified by Pulci and Boiardo, were elevated to the rank of epic poetry
by the genius of Ariosto (1474-1533). He was born at Reggio, of which
place his father was governor. As the means of improving his resources, he
early attached himself to the service of Cardinal D'Este, and afterwards
to that of the Duke of Ferrara. At the age of thirty years he commenced
his "Orlando Furioso," and continued the composition for eleven years.
While the work was in progress, he was in the habit of reading the cantos,
as they were finished, at the courts of the cardinal and duke, which may
account for the manner in which this hundred-fold tale is told, as if
delivered spontaneously before scholars and princes, who assembled to
listen to the marvelous adventures of knights and ladies, giants and
magicians, from the lips of the story-teller. Ariosto excelled in the
practice of reading aloud with distinct utterance and animated elocution,
an accomplishment of peculiar value at a time when books were scarce, and
the emoluments of authors depended more on the gratuities of their patrons
than the sale of their works. In each of the four editions which he
published, he improved, corrected, and enlarged the original. No poet,
perhaps, ever evinced more fastidious taste in adjusting the nicer points
that affected the harmony, dignity, and fluency of his composition, yet
the whole seems as natural as if it had flowed extemporaneously from his
pen. Throughout life it was the lot of Ariosto to struggle against the
difficulties inseparable from narrow and precarious circumstances. His
patrons, among them Leo X., were often culpable in exciting expectations,
and afterwards disappointing them. The earliest and latest works of
Ariosto, though not his best, were dramatic. He wrote also some satires in
the form of epistles. He died in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and his
ashes now rest under the magnificent monument in the new church of the
Benedictines in Ferrara. The house in which the poet lived, the chair in
which he was wont to study, and the inkstand whence he filled his pen, are
still shown as interesting memorials of his life and labors.
Ariosto, like Pulci and Boiardo, undertook to sing the paladins and their
amours at the court of Charlemagne, during the fabulous wars of this
emperor against the Moors. In his poem he seems to have designedly thrown
off the embarrassment of a unity of action. The Orlando Furioso is founded
on three principal narratives, distinct but often intermingled; the
history of the war between Charlemagne and the Saracens, Orlando's love
for Angelica, his madness on hearing of her infidelity, and Ruggiero's
attachment to Bradamante. These stories are interwoven with so many
incidents and episodes, and there is in the poem such a prodigious
quantity of action, that it is difficult to assign it a central point.
Indeed, Ariosto, playing with his readers, seems to delight in continually
misleading them, and allows them no opportunity of viewing the general
subject of the poem. This want of unity is essentially detrimental to the
general impression of the work, and the author has succeeded in throwing
around its individual parts an interest which does not attach to it as a
whole. The world to which the poet transports his readers is truly poetic;
all the factitious wants of common life, its cold calculations and its
imaginary distinctions, disappear; love and honor reign supreme, and the
prompting of the one and the laws of the other are alone permitted to
stimulate and regulate a life, of which war is the only business and
gallantry the only pastime. The magic and sorcery, borrowed from the East,
which pervade these chivalric fictions, lead us still farther from the
world of realities. Nor is it the least charm that all the wonders and
prodigies here related are made to appear quite probable from the
apparently artless, truthful style of the narration. The versification of
the Orlando is more distinguished for sweetness and elegance than for
strength; but, in point of harmony, and in the beauty, pathos, and grace
of his descriptions, no poet surpasses Ariosto.
4. HEROIC EPIC POETRY.--While, in the romantic epic of the Middle Ages,
unity of design was considered unnecessary, and truthfulness of detail,
fertility of imagination, strength of coloring, and vivacity of narration
were alone required, heroic poetry was expected to exhibit, on the most
extensive scale, those laws of symmetry which adapt all the parts to one
object, which combine variety with unity, and, as it were, initiate us
into the secrets of creation, by disclosing the single idea which governs
the most dissimilar actions, and harmonizes the most opposite interests.
It was reserved to Torquato Tasso to raise the Italian language to this
kind of epic poetry.
Tasso (1544-1595) was born in Sorrento, and many marvels are told by his
biographers of the precocity of his genius. Political convulsions early
drove his father into exile. He went to Rome and sent for his son, then
ten years of age. When the exiles were no longer safe at Rome, an asylum
was offered them at Pesaro by the Duke of Urbino. Here young Tasso pursued
his studies in all the learning and accomplishments of the age. In his
seventeenth year he had completed the composition of an epic poem on the
adventures of Rinaldo, which was received with passionate admiration
throughout Italy. The appearance of this poem proved not only the
beginning of the author's fame, but the dawn of a new day in Italian
literature. In 1565, Tasso was nominated by the Cardinal D'Este as
gentleman of his household, and his reception at the court was in every
respect most pleasing to his youthful ambition. He was honored by the
intimate acquaintance of the accomplished princesses Lucretia and Leonora,
and to this dangerous friendship must be attributed most of his subsequent
misfortunes, if it be true that he cherished a secret attachment for
Leonora.
During this prosperous period of his life, Tasso prosecuted his great epic
poem, the "Jerusalem Delivered," and as canto after canto was completed
and recited to the princesses, he found in their applause repeated
stimulus to proceed. While steadily engaged in his great work, his fancy
gave birth to numerous fugitive poems, the most remarkable of which is the
"Aminta." After its representation at the court of Ferrara, all Italy
resounded with the poet's fame. It was translated into all the languages
of Europe, and the name of Tasso would have been immortal even though he
had never composed an epic. The various vexations he endured regarding the
publication of his work at its conclusion, the wrongs he suffered from
both patrons and rivals, together with disappointed ambition, rendered him
the subject of feverish anxiety and afterwards the prey of restless fear
and continual suspicion. His mental malady increased, and he wandered from
place to place without finding any permanent home. Assuming the disguise
of a shepherd, he traveled to Sorrento, to visit his sister; but soon,
tired of seclusion, he obtained permission to return to the court of
Ferrara. He was coldly received by the duke, and was refused an interview
with the princesses. He left the place in indignation, and wandered from
one city of Italy to another, reduced to the appearance of a wretched
itinerant, sometimes kindly received, sometimes driven away as a vagabond,
always restless, suspicious, and unhappy. In this mood he again returned
to Ferrara, at a moment when the duke was too much occupied with the
solemnities of his own marriage to attend to the complaints of the poet.
Tasso became infuriated, retracted all the praises he had bestowed on the
house of Este, and indulged in the bitterest invectives against the duke,
by whose orders he was afterwards committed to the hospital for lunatics,
where he was closely confined, and treated with extreme rigor. If he had
never been insane before, he certainly now became so. To add to his
misfortune, his poem was printed without his permission, from an imperfect
copy, and while editors and printers enriched themselves with the fruit of
his labors, the poet himself was languishing in a dungeon, despised,
neglected, sick, and destitute of the common conveniences of life, and
above all, deafened by the frantic cries with which the hospital
continually resounded. When the first rigors of his imprisonment were
relaxed, Tasso pursued his studies, and poured forth his emotions in every
form of verse. Some of his most beautiful minor poems were composed during
this period. After more than seven years' confinement, the poet was
liberated at the intercession of the Duke of Mantua. Prom this time he
wandered from city to city; the hallucinations of his mind never entirely
ceased. Towards the close of the year 1594 he took up his residence at
Rome, where he died at the age of fifty-two.
Tasso was particularly happy in choosing the most engaging subject that
could inspire a modern poet--the struggle between the Christians and the
Saracens. The Saracens considered themselves called on to subjugate the
earth to the faith of Mohammed; the Christians to enfranchise the sacred
spot where their divine founder suffered death. The religion of the age
was wholly warlike. It was a profound, disinterested, enthusiastic, and
poetic sentiment, and no period has beheld such a brilliant display of
valor. The belief in the supernatural, which formed a striking
characteristic of the time, seemed to have usurped the laws of nature and
the common course of events.
The faith against which the crusaders fought appeared to them the worship
of the powers of darkness. They believed that a contest might exist
between invisible beings as between different nations, and when Tasso
armed the dark powers of enchantment against the Christian knights, he
only developed and embellished a popular idea.
The scene of the Jerusalem Delivered, so rich in recollections and
associations with all our religious feelings, is one in which nature
displays her riches and treasures, and where descriptions, in turn the
most lovely and the most austere, attract the pen of the poet. All the
nations of Christendom send forth their warriors to the army of the cross,
and the whole world thus becomes his patrimony. Whatever interest the
taking of Troy might possess for the Greeks, or the vanity of the Romans
might attach to the adventures of AEneas, whom they adopted as their
progenitor, it may be asserted that neither the Iliad nor the Aeneid
possesses the dignity of subject, the interest at the same time divine and
human, and the varied dramatic action which are peculiar to the Jerusalem
Delivered.
The whole course of the poem is comprised in the campaign of 1093, when
the Christian army, assembled on the plain of Tortosa, marched towards
Jerusalem, which they besieged and captured. From the commencement of the
poem, the most tender sentiments are combined with the action, and love
has been assigned a nobler part than had been given to it in any other
epic poem. Love, enthusiastic, respectful, and full of homage, was an
essential characteristic of chivalry and the source of the noblest
actions. While with the heroes of the classic epic it was a weakness, with
the Christian knights it was a devotion. In this work are happily combined
the classic and romantic styles. It is classic in its plan, romantic in
its heroes; it is conceived in the spirit of antiquity, and executed in
the spirit of medieval romance. It has the beauty which results from unity
of design and from the harmony of all its parts, united with the romantic
form, which falls in with the feelings, the passions, and the
recollections of Europeans. Notwithstanding some defects, which must be
attributed rather to the taste of his age than to his genius, in the
history of literature Tasso may be placed by the side of Homer and Virgil.
5. LYRIC POETRY.--Lyric poetry, which had been brought to such perfection
by Petrarch in the fourteenth century, but almost lost sight of in the
fifteenth, was cultivated by all the Italian poets of this period.
Petrarch became the model, which every aspirant endeavored to imitate.
Hence arose a host of poetasters, who wrote with considerable elegance,
but without the least power of imagination. We must not, however, confound
with the servile imitators of Petrarch those who took nothing from his
school but purity of language and elegance of style, and who consecrated
the lyre not to love alone, but to patriotism and religion. First of these
are Poliziano and Lorenzo de' Medici, in whose ballads and stanzas the
language of Petrarch reappeared with all its beauty and harmony. Later,
Cardinal Bembo (1470-1547), Molza (1489-1544), Tarsia (1476-1535),
Guidiccioni (1480-1541), Della Casa (1503-1556), Costanzo (1507-1585), and
later still, Chiabrera (1552-1637), attempted to restore Italian poetry to
its primitive elegance. Their sonnets and canzoni contributed much to the
revival of a purer style, although their elegance is often too elaborate
and their thoughts and feelings too artificial. Besides these, Ariosto,
Tasso, Machiavelli, and Michael Angelo, whose genius was practiced in more
ambitious tasks, did not disdain to shape and polish such diminutive gems
as the canzone, the madrigal, and the sonnet.
This reform of taste in lyric composition was also promoted by several
women, among whom the most distinguished at once for beauty, virtue, and
talent was Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547). She was daughter of the high
constable of Naples, and married to the Marquis of Pescara. Early left a
widow, she abandoned herself to sorrow. That fidelity which made her
refuse the hand of princes in her youth, rendered her incapable of a
second attachment in her widowhood. The solace of her life was to mourn
the loss and cherish the memory of Pescara. After passing several years in
retirement, Vittoria took up her residence at Rome, and became the
intimate friend of the distinguished men of her time. Her verses, though
deficient in poetic fancy, are full of tenderness and absorbing passion.
Vittoria Colonna was reckoned by her contemporaries as a being almost more
than human, and the epithet divine was usually prefixed to her name. By
her death-bed stood Michael Angelo, who was considerably her junior, but
who enjoyed her friendship and regarded her with enthusiastic veneration.
He wrote several sonnets in her praise. Veronica Gambara, Tullia
d'Aragona, and Giulia Gonzaga may also be named as possessing superior
genius to many literary men of their time.
6. DRAMATIC POETRY.--Tragedy, in the hands of the Romans, had exhibited no
national characteristics, and disappeared with the decline of their
literature. When Europe began to breathe again, the natural taste of the
multitude for games and spectacles revived; the church entertained the
people with its representations, which, however, were destitute of all
literary character. At the commencement of the fourteenth century we find
traces of Latin tragedies, and these, during the fifteenth century, were
frequently represented, as we have seen, more as a branch of ancient art
and learning than as matter of recreation. After the "Orpheus" of
Poliziano had appeared on the stage, the first drama in the Italian
tongue, Latin tragedies and comedies were translated into the Italian, but
as yet no one had ventured beyond mere translation.
Leo X. shed over the dramatic art the same favor which he bestowed on the
other liberal arts, and the theatricals of the Vatican were of the most
splendid description. During his pontificate, Trissino (1478-1550)
dedicated to him the tragedy of "Sofonisba," formed on the Greek model,
the first regular tragedy which had appeared since the revival of letters.
Its subject is found entire in the work of Livy, and the invention of the
poet has added little to the records of the historian. The piece is not
divided into acts and scenes, and the only repose given to the action is
by the chorus, who sing odes and lyric stanzas. The story is well
conducted, the characters are all dramatic, and the incidents arise
spontaneously out of each other; but the style of the tragedy has neither
the sublimity nor the originality which becomes this kind of composition,
and which distinguished the genius of the dramatic poets of Athens.
The example of Trissino was followed by Rucellai (1475-1525), who left two
dramas, "Rosamunda" and "Orestes," written in blank verse, with a chorus,
much resembling the Greek tragedies. This poet used much more license with
his subject than Trissino; his plot is less simple and pathetic, but
abounds in horror, and his style is florid and rhetorical. Tasso, Speroni
(1500-1588), Giraldi (1504-1573), and others, attempted also this species
of composition, and their dramas are considered the best of the age.
As the tragic poets of this century servilely imitated Sophocles and
Euripides, the comic writers copied Plautus and Terence. The comedies of
Ariosto, of which there are five, display considerable ingenuity of
invention and an elegant vivacity of language. The dramatic works of
Machiavelli approach more nearly to the middle comedy of the Greeks. They
depict and satirize contemporaneous rather than obsolete manners, but the
characters and plots awaken little interest.
Bentivoglio (1506-1573), Salviati (1540-1589), Firenzuola (1493-1547),
Caro (1507-1566), Cardinal Bibiena, (1470-1520), Aretino (1492-1556), and
others, are among the principal comic writers of the age, who displayed
more or less dramatic talent. Of all the Italian comedies composed in the
sixteenth century, however, scarcely one was the work of eminent genius. A
species of comic drama, known under the name of _Commedia dell' arte_,
took its rise in this century. The characteristic of these plays is that
the story only belongs to the poet, the dialogue being improvised by the
actors. The four principal characters, denominated masks, were
_Pantaloon_, a merchant of Venice, a doctor of laws from Bologna, and two
servants, known to us as _Harlequin_ and _Columbine_. When we add to these
a couple of sons, one virtuous and the other profligate; a couple of
daughters, and a pert, intriguing chambermaid, we have nearly the whole
_dramatis personae_ of these plays. The extempore dialogue by which the
plot was developed was replete with drollery and wit, and there was no end
to the novelty of the jests.
7. PASTORAL DRAMA AND DIDACTIC POETRY.--The pastoral drama, which
describes characters and passions in their primitive simplicity, is thus
distinguished from tragedy and comedy. It is probable that the idyls of
the Greeks afforded the first germ of this species of composition, but
Beccari, a poet of Ferrara (1510-1590), is considered the father of the
genuine pastoral drama. Before him Sannazzaro (1458-1530) had written the
"Arcadia," which, however, bears the character of an eclogue rather than
that of a drama. It is written in the choicest Italian; its versification
is melodious, and it abounds with beautiful descriptions; as an imitation
of the ancients, it is entitled to the highest rank. The beauty of the
Italian landscape and the softness of the Italian climate seem naturally
fitted to dispose the poetic soul to the dreams of rural life, and the
language seems, by its graceful simplicity, peculiarly adapted to express
the feelings of a class of people whom we picture to ourselves as
ingenuous and infantine in their natures. The manners of the Italian
peasantry are more truly pastoral than those of any other people, and a
bucolic poet in that fair region need not wander to Arcadia. But
Sannazzaro, like all the early pastoral poets of Italy, proposed to
himself, as the highest excellence, a close imitation of Virgil; he took
his shepherds from the fabulous ages of antiquity, borrowed the mythology
of the Greeks, and completed the machinery with fauns, nymphs, and satyrs.
Like Sannazzaro, Beccari places his shepherds in Arcadia, and invests them
with ancient manners; but he goes beyond mere dialogue; he connects their
conversations by a series of dramatic actions. The representation of one
of these poems incited Tasso to the composition of his "Aminta," the
success of which was due less to the interest of the story than to the
sweetness of the poetry, and the soft voluptuousness which breathes in
every line. It is written in flowing verse of various measures, without
rhyme, and enriched with lyric choruses of uncommon beauty.
The imitations of the Aminta were numerous, but, with one exception, which
has disputed the palm with its model, they had an ephemeral existence.
Guarini (1537-1612) was the author of the "Pastor Fido," which is the
principal monument of his genius; its chief merit lies in the poetry in
which the tale is embodied, the simplicity and clearness of the diction,
the tenderness of the sentiments, and the vehement passion which gives
life to the whole. This drama was first performed in 1585, at Turin,
during the nuptial festivities of the Prince of Savoy. Its success was
triumphant, and Guarini was justly considered as second only to Tasso
among the poets of the age. Theatrical music, which was now beginning to
be cultivated, found its way into the acts of the pastoral drama, and in
one scene of the Pastor Fido it is united with dancing; thus was opened
the way for the Italian opera.
Among the didactic poets, Rucellai may be first mentioned. His poem of
"The Bees" is an imitation of the fourth book of the Georgics; he does
not, however, servilely follow his model, but gives an original coloring
to that which he borrowed. Alamanni (1495-1556) occupies a secondary rank
among epic, tragic, and comic poets, but merits a distinguished place in
didactic poetry. His poem entitled "Cultivation" is pure and elegant in
its style.
8. SATIRICAL POETRY, NOVELS, AND TALES.--In an age when every kind of
poetry that had flourished among the Greeks and Romans appeared again with
new lustre, satire was not wanting. There is much that is satirical in the
"Divine Comedy" of Dante. Three of Petrarch's sonnets are satires on the
court of Rome; those of Ariosto are valuable not only for their flowing
style, but for the details they afford of his character, taste, and
circumstances. The satires of Alamanni are chiefly political, and in
general are characterized by purity of diction and by a high moral
tendency.
There is a kind of jocose or burlesque satire peculiar to Italy, in which
the literature is extremely rich. If it serves the cause of wisdom, it is
always in the mask of folly. The poet who carried this kind of writing to
the highest perfection was Berni (1499-1536). Comic poetry, hitherto known
in Italy as burlesque, of which Burchiello was the representative in the
fifteenth century, received from Berni the name of Bernesque, in its more
refined and elegant character. His satirical poems are full of light and
elegant mockery, and his style possesses nature and comic truth. In his
hand, everything was transformed into ridicule; his satire is almost
always personal, and his laughter is not always restrained by respect for
morals or for decency. To burlesque poetry may be referred also the
Macaronic style, a ludicrous mixture of Latin and Italian, introduced by
Merlino Coccajo (1491-1544). His poems are as full of lively descriptions
and piquant satire as they are wanting in decorum and morality.
The story-tellers of the sixteenth century are numerous. Sometimes they
appear as followers of Boccaccio; sometimes they attempt to open new paths
for themselves. The class of productions, of which the "Decameron" was the
earliest example in the fourteenth century, is called by the Italians
"Novelle." In general, the interest of the tale depends rather on a number
of incidents slightly touched, than on a few carefully delineated; from
the difficulty of developing character in a few isolated scenes, the
story-teller trusts for effect to the combination of incident and style,
and the delineation of character, which is the nobler part of fiction, is
neglected. Italian novelists, too, have often regarded the incidents
themselves but as a vehicle for fine writing. An interesting view of these
productions is, that they form a vast repository of incident, in which we
recognize the origin of much that has since appeared in our own and other
languages.
Machiavelli was one of the first novelists of this age. His little tale,
"Belfagor," is pleasantly told, and has been translated into all
languages. The celebrated "Giulietta" of Luigi da Porta is the sole
production of the author, but it has served to give him a high place among
Italian novelists. This is Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet in another shape,
though it is not probable that it was the immediate source from which the
great dramatist collected the materials for his tragedy. The "Hundred
Tales" of Cinzio Giraldi (1504-1573) are distinguished by great boldness
of conception, and by a wild and tragic horror which commands the
attention, while it is revolting to the feelings. He appears to have
ransacked every age and country, and to have exhausted the catalogue of
human crimes in procuring subjects for his novels.
Grazzini, called Lasca (1503-1583), is perhaps the best of the Italian
novelists after Boccaccio. His manner is light and graceful. His stories
display much ingenuity, but are often improbable and cruel in their
nature. The Fairy Tales of Strapparola (b. 1500) are the earliest
specimens of the kind in the prose literature of Italy, and this work has
been a perfect storehouse from which succeeding writers have derived a
vast multitude of their tales. To this, also, we are indebted for the
legend of "Fair Star," "Puss in Boots," "Fortunio," and others which adorn
our nursery libraries.
Firenzuola (1493-1547) occupies a high rank among the Italian novelists;
his "Golden Ass," from Apuleius, and his "Discourses of Animals" are
distinguished for their originality and purity of style.
Bandello (1480-1562) is the novelist best known to foreigners after
Boccaccio. Shakspeare and other English dramatists have drawn largely from
his voluminous writings. His tales are founded upon history rather than
fancy.
9. HISTORY.--Historical composition was cultivated with much success by
the Italians of the sixteenth century; yet such was the altered state of
things, that, except at Venice and Genoa, republics had been superseded by
princes, and republican authority by the pomp of regal courts. Home was a
nest of intrigue, luxury, and corruption; Tuscany had become the prey of a
powerful family; Lombardy was but a battle-field for the rival powers of
France and Germany, and the lot of the people was oppression and
humiliation. High independence of mind, one of the most valuable qualities
in connection with historical research, was impossible under these
circumstances, and yet, some of the Italian writers of this age exhibit
genius, strength of character, and a conscientious sense of the sacred
commission of the historian.
Machiavelli (1469-1527) was born in Florence of a family which had enjoyed
the first offices in the republic. At the age of thirty, he was made
chancellor of the state, and from that time he was constantly employed in
public affairs, and particularly in embassies. Among those to the smaller
princes of Italy, the one of the longest duration was to Caesar Borgia,
whom he narrowly observed at the very important period when this
illustrious villain was elevating himself by his crimes, and whose
diabolical policy he had thus an opportunity of studying. He had a
considerable share in directing the counsels of the republic, and the
influence to which he owed his elevation was that of the free party, which
censured the power of the Medici, and at that time held them in exile.
When the latter were recalled, Machiavelli was deprived of all his offices
and banished. He then entered into a conspiracy against the usurpers,
which was discovered, and he was put to the torture, but without wresting
from him any confession which could impeach either himself or those who
had confided in his honor. Leo X., on his elevation to the pontificate,
restored him to liberty. At this time he wrote his "History of Florence,"
in which he united eloquence of style with depth of reflection, and
although an elegant, animated, and picturesque composition, it is not the
fruit of much research or criticism.
Besides this history, Machiavelli wrote his discourses on the first decade
of Livy, considered his best work, and "The Art of War," which is an
invaluable commentary on the history of the times. These works had the
desired effect of inducing the Medici family to use the political services
of the author, and at the request of Leo X. he wrote his essay "On the
Reform of the Florentine Government."
Guicciardini (1483-1541), the friend of Machiavelli, is considered the
greatest historian of this age. He attached himself to the service of Leo
X., and was raised to high offices and honors by him and the two
succeeding popes. On the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, the
republican party having obtained the ascendency, he was obliged to fly
from the city. From this time he manifested an utter abhorrence of all
popular institutions, and threw himself heart and soul into the interests
of the Medici. He displayed his zeal at the expense of the lives and
liberties of the most virtuous among his fellow-citizens. Having aided in
the elevation of Cosmo, afterwards Grand Duke of Tuscany, and being
requited with ingratitude and neglect, he retired in disgust from public
life, and devoted himself wholly to the completion of his history of
Italy. This work, which is a monument of his genius and industry,
commences with the coming of Charles VIII. to Italy, and concludes with
the year 1534, embracing one of the most important periods of Italian
history. His powerfully-drawn pictures exhibit the men and the times so
vividly, that they seem to pass before our eyes. His delineations of
character, his masterly views of the course of events, the conduct of
leaders, and the changes of war, claim our highest admiration. His
language is pure and his style elegant, though sometimes too Latinized;
his letters are considered as a most valuable contribution to the history
of his times.
Numberless historians, of more or less merit, stimulated by the renown of
Machiavelli and Guicciardini, composed annals of the states to which they
belonged, while others undertook to write the histories of foreign
nations. Nardi (1496-1556), one of the most ardent and pure patriots of
his age, takes the first place. He wrote the history of the Florentine
Revolution of 1527, a work which, though defective in style, is
distinguished for its truthfulness. The histories of Florence by Adriani,
Varchi, and Segni (1499-1559), are considered the best works of their
kind, for elegance of style and for interest of the narrative. Almost all
the other cities of Italy had their historians, but the palm must be
awarded to the Florentine writers, not only on account of their number,
but for the elegance and purity of their style, for their impartiality and
the sagacity of their research into matters of fact. Among the writers of
the second class may be mentioned Davanzati (1519), the translator of
Tacitus, who wrote, in the Florentine dialect, a history of the schism of
England; Giambullari (1495-1564), who wrote a history of Europe;
D'Anghiera (fl. 1536), who, after having examined the papers of
Christopher Columbus, and the official reports transmitted from America to
Spain, compiled an interesting work on "Ocean Navigation and the New
World." His style is incorrect; but this is compensated for by the
fidelity of his narration. Several of the German States, France, the
Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, and the East Indies, found Italian authors
in this age to digest and arrange their chronicles, and give them
historical form.
To this period belong also the "Lives of the Most Celebrated Artists,"
written by Vasari (1512-1574), himself a distinguished artist, a work
highly interesting for its subject and style, and the Autobiography of
Benvenuto Cellini (b. 1500), one of the most curious works which was ever
written in any language.
10. GRAMMAR AND RHETORIC.--The Italian language was used both in writing
and conversation for three centuries before its rules and principles were
reduced to a scientific form. Bembo was the first scholar who established
the grammar. Grammatical writings and researches were soon multiplied and
extended. Salviati was one of the most prominent grammarians of the
sixteenth century, and Buonmattei and Cinonio of the seventeenth. But the
progress in this study was due less to the grammarians than to the
_Dictionary della Crusca_. Among the scholars who took part in the
exercises of the Florentine Academy, founded by Cosmo de' Medici, there
were some who, dissatisfied with the philosophical disputations which were
the object of this institution, organized another association for the
purpose of giving a new impulse to the study of the language. This
academy, inaugurated in 1587, was called _della Crusca_, literally, _of
the bran_. The object of this new association being to sift all impurities
from the language, a sieve, the emblem of the academy, was placed In the
hall; the members at their meetings sat on flour-barrels, and the chair of
the presiding officer stood on three mill-stones. The first work of the
academy was to compile a universal dictionary of the Italian language,
which was published in 1612. Though the Dictionary della Crusca was
conceived in an exclusive spirit, and admitted, as linguistic authorities,
only writers of the fourteenth century, belonging to Tuscany, it
contributed greatly to the progress of the Italian tongue.
Every university of Italy boasted in the sixteenth century of some
celebrated rhetoricians, all of whom, however, were overshadowed by
Vettori (1499-1585), distinguished for the editions of the Greek and Latin
classics published under his superintendence, and for his commentaries on
the rhetorical books of Aristotle. B. Cavalcanti (1503-1562) was also
celebrated in this department, and his "Rhetoric" is the best work of the
age on that subject.
The oratory of this period is very imperfect. Orations were written in the
style of Boccaccio, which, however suitable for the narration of merry
tales, is entirely unfit for oratorical compositions. Among those who most
distinguished themselves in this department are Della Casa (1503-1556),
whose harangues against the Emperor Charles V. are full of eloquence;
Speroni (1500-1588), whose style is more perfect than that of any other
writer of the sixteenth century; and Lollio (d. 1568), whose orations are
the most polished. At that time, in the forum of Venice, eloquent orators
pleaded the causes of the citizens, and at the close of the preceding
century, Savonarola (1452-1498), a preacher of Florence, thundered against
the abuses of the Roman church, and suffered death in consequence. Among
the models of letter-writing, Caro takes the first place. His familiar
letters are written with that graceful elegance which becomes this kind of
composition. The letters of Tasso are full of eloquence and philosophy,
and are written in the most select Italian.
11. SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND POLITICS.--The sciences, during this period,
went hand in hand with poetry and history. Libraries and other aids to
learning were multiplied, and academies were organized with other objects
than those of enjoyment of mere poetical triumphs or dramatic amusements.
The Academy del Cimento was founded at Florence in 1657 by Leopold de'
Medici, for promoting the study of the natural sciences, and similar
institutions were established in Rome, Bologna, and Naples, and other
cities of Italy, besides the Royal Academy of London (1660), and the
Academy of Sciences in Paris (1666). From the period of the first
institution of universities, that of Bologna had maintained its
preëminence. Padua, Ferrara, Pavia, Turin, Florence, Siena, Pisa, and Rome
were also seats of learning. The men who directed the scientific studies
of their country and of Europe were almost universally attached as
professors to these institutions. Indeed, at this period, through the
genius of Galileo and his school, European science first dawned in Italy.
Galileo (1564-1641) was a native of Pisa, and professor of mathematics in
the university of that city. Being obliged to leave it on account of
scientific opinions, at that time at variance with universally received
principles, he removed to the university of Padua, where for eighteen
years he enjoyed the high consideration of his countrymen. He returned to
Pisa, and at the age of seventy was summoned to Rome by the Inquisition,
and required to renounce his doctrines relative to the Copernican system,
of which he was a zealous defender, and his life was spared only on
condition of his abjuring his opinions. It is said that on rising from his
knees, after making the abjuration of his belief that the earth moved
round the sun, he stamped his foot on the floor and said, "It does move,
though." To Galileo science is indebted for the discovery of the laws of
weight, the scientific construction of the system of Copernicus, the
pendulum, the improvement of many scientific instruments, the invention of
the hydrostatic balance, the thermometer, proportional compasses, and,
above all, the telescope. He discovered the satellites of Jupiter, the
phases of Venus, the mountains of the moon, the spots and the rotation of
the sun. Science, which had consisted for centuries only of scholastic
subtleties and barren dialectics, he established on an experimental basis.
In his works he unites delicacy and purity with vivacity of style.
Among the scholars of Galileo, who most efficaciously contributed to the
progress of science, may be mentioned Torricelli (1608-1647), the inventor
of the barometer, an elegant and profound writer; Borelli (1608-1679), the
founder of animal mechanics, or the science of the movements of animals,
distinguished for his works on astronomy, mathematics, anatomy, and
natural philosophy; Cassini (1625-1712), a celebrated astronomer, to whom
France is indebted for its meridian; Cavalieri (1598-1648), distinguished
for his works on geometry, which paved the way to the discovery of the
infinitesimal calculus.
In the scientific department of the earlier part of this period may also
be mentioned Tartaglia (d. 1657) and Cardano (1501-1576), celebrated for
their researches on algebra and geometry; Vignola (1507-1573) and Palladio
(1518-1580), whose works on architecture are still held in high
estimation, as well as the work of Marchi (fl. 1550) on military
construction. Later, Redi (1626-1697) distinguished himself as a natural
philosopher, a physician and elegant writer, both in prose and verse, and
Malpighi (1628-1694) and Bellini (1643-1704) were anatomists of high
repute. Scamozzi (1550-1616) emulated the glory formerly won by Palladio
in architecture, and Montecuccoli (1608-1681), a great general of the age,
ably illustrated the art of strategy.
The sixteenth century abounds in philosophers who, abandoning the
doctrines of Plato, which had been in great favor in the fifteenth,
adopted those of Aristotle. Some, however, dared to throw off the yoke of
philosophical authority, and to walk in new paths of speculation. Patrizi
(1529-1597) was one of the first who undertook to examine for himself the
phenomena of nature, and to attack the authority of Aristotle. Telesio
(1509-1588), a friend of Patrizi, joined him in the work of overthrowing
the Peripatetic idols; but neither of them dared to renounce entirely the
authority of antiquity. The glory of having claimed absolute freedom in
philosophical speculation belongs to Cardano, already mentioned, to
Campanella (1568-1639), who for the boldness of his opinions was put to
the torture and spent thirty years in prison, and to Giordano Bruno (1550-
1600), a sublime thinker and a bold champion of freedom, who was burned at
the stake.
Among the moral philosophers of this age may be mentioned Speroni, whose
writings are distinguished by harmony, freedom, and eloquence of style;
Tasso, whose dialogues unite loftiness of thought with elegance of style;
Castiglione (1468-1529), whose "Cortigiano" is in equal estimation as a
manual of elegance of manners and as a model of pure Italian; and Della
Casa, whose "Galateo" is a complete system of politeness, couched in
elegant language, and a work to which Lord Chesterfield was much indebted.
Political science had its greatest representative in Machiavelli, who
wrote on it with that profound knowledge of the human heart which he had
acquired in public life, and with the habit of unweaving, in all its
intricacies, the political perfidy which then prevailed in Italy. The
"Prince" is the best known of his political works, and from the infamous
principles which he has here developed, though probably with good
intentions, his name is allied with everything false and perfidious in
politics. The object of the treatise is to show how a new prince may
establish and consolidate his power, and how the Medici might not only
confirm their authority in Florence, but extend it over the whole of the
Peninsula. At the time that Machiavelli wrote, Italy had been for
centuries a theatre where might was the only right. He was not a man given
to illusive fancies, and throughout a long political career nothing had
been permitted to escape his keen and penetrating eye. In all the affairs
in which he had taken part he had seen that success was the only thing
studied, and therefore to succeed in an enterprise, by whatever means, had
become the fundamental idea of his political theory. His Prince reduced to
a science the art, long before known and practiced by kings and tyrants,
of attaining absolute power by deception and cruelty, and of maintaining
it afterwards by the dissimulation of leniency and virtue. It does not
appear that any exception was at first taken to the doctrines which have
since called forth such severe reprehension, and from the moment of its
appearance the Prince became a favorite at every court. But soon after the
death of Machiavelli a violent outcry was raised against him, and although
it was first heard with amazement, it soon became general, The Prince was
laid under the ban of several successive popes, and the name of
Machiavelli passed into a proverb of infamy. His bones lay undistinguished
for nearly two centuries, when a monument was erected to his memory in the
church of Santa Croce, through the influence of an English nobleman.
12. PERIOD OF DECADENCE.--The sixteenth century reaped the fruits that had
been sown in the fifteenth, but it scattered no seeds for a harvest in the
seventeenth, which was therefore doomed to general sterility. In the
reigns of Charles V. and Philip II. the chains of civil and religious
despotism were forged which subdued the intellect and arrested the genius
of the people. The Spanish viceroys ruled with an iron hand over Milan,
Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Poverty and superstition wasted and darkened
the minds of the people, and indolence and love of pleasure introduced
almost universal degeneracy. But the Spanish yoke, which weighed so
heavily at both extremities of the Peninsula, did not extend to the
republic of Venice, or to the duchy of Tuscany; and the heroic character
of the princes of Savoy alone would have served to throw a lustre over
this otherwise darkened period. In literature, too, there were a few who
resisted the torrent of bad taste, amidst many who opened the way for a
crowd of followers in the false route, and gave to the age that character
of extravagance for which it is so peculiarly distinguished.
The literary works of the seventeenth century may be divided into three
classes, the first of which, under the guidance of Marini, attained the
lowest degree of corruption, and remain in the annals of literature as
monuments of bombastic style and bad taste. The second embraces those
writers who were aware of the faults of the school to which they belonged,
and who, aiming to bring about a reform in literature, while they
endeavored to follow a better style, partook more or less of the character
of the age. To this class may be referred Chiabrera already named, and
more particularly Filicaja and other poets of the same school. The third
class is composed of a few writers who preserved themselves faithful to
the principles of true taste, and among them are Menzini, Salvator Rosa,
Redi, and more particularly Tassoni.
13. EPIC AND LYRIC POETRY.--Marini (1569-1625), the celebrated innovator
on classic Italian taste, is considered as the first who seduced the poets
of the seventeenth century into a labored and affected style. He was born
at Naples and educated for the legal profession, for which he had little
taste, and on publishing a volume of poems, his indignant father turned
him out of doors. But his popular qualities never left him without
friends. He was invited to the Court of France, obtained the favor of Mary
de' Medici, and the situation of gentleman to the king. He became
exceedingly popular among the French nobility, many of whom learned
Italian for the sole purpose of reading his works. It was here that he
published the most celebrated of his poems, entitled "Adonis." He
afterwards purchased a beautiful villa near Naples, to which he retired,
and where he soon after died. The Adonis of Marini is a mixture of the
epic and the romantic style, the subject being taken from the well-known
story of Venus and Adonis. He renounced all keeping and probability, both
in his incidents and descriptions; if he could present a series of
enchanted pictures, he was little solicitous as to the manner of their
arrangement. But the work has much beauty and imagination, and is often
animated by the true spirit of poetry. Its principal faults are that it is
sadly wire-drawn, and abounds in puns, endless antitheses, and inventions
for surprising or bewildering the reader; graces which were greatly
admired by the contemporaries of the poet. Marini was a voluminous writer,
and was not only extolled in his own country above its classic authors,
and in France, but the Spaniards held him in the highest esteem, and
imitated and even surpassed him in his own eccentric career. He had also
innumerable imitators in Italy, many of whom attained a high reputation
during their lives, and afterwards sank into complete oblivion.
Filicaja (1642-1709) stands at the head of the lyric poets of the
seventeenth century. His inspiration seems first to have been awakened
when Vienna was besieged by the Turks in 1683, and gallantly defended by
the Christian powers. His verses on this occasion awoke the most
enthusiastic admiration, and called forth the eulogies of princes and
poets. The admiration which he excited in his day is scarcely to be
wondered at; for, though this judgment has not been ratified by posterity,
Filicaja has at least the merit of having raised the poetry of Italy from
the abject service of mere amorous imbecility to the noble office of
embodying the more manly and virtuous sentiments; and though his style is
infected with the bombastic spirit of the age, it is even in this respect
singularly moderate, compared with that of his contemporaries.
14. MOCK-HEROIC POETRY, THE DRAMA, AND SATIRE.--The full maturity of the
style of mock-heroic poetry is due to Tassoni (1565-1635). He first
attracted public notice by disputing the authority of Aristotle, and the
poetical merits of Petrarch. In 1622 he published his "Rape of the
Bucket," a burlesque poem on the petty wars which were so common between
the towns of Italy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The heroes
of Modena had, in 1325, discomfited the Bolognese, and pursued them to the
very heart of their city, whence they carried off, as a trophy of their
victory, the bucket belonging to the public well. The expedition
undertaken by the Bolognese for its recovery forms the basis of the twelve
mock-heroic cantos of Tassoni. To understand this poem requires a
knowledge of the vulgarisms and idioms which are frequently introduced in
it.
About the same period, Bracciolini (1566-1645) produced another comic-
heroic poem, entitled the "Ridicule of the Gods," in which the ancient
deities are introduced as mingling with the peasants, and declaiming in
the low, vulgar dialect, and making themselves most agreeably ridiculous.
Somewhat later appeared one more example of the same species of epic, "The
Malmantile," by Lippi (1606-1664). This poem is considered a pure model of
the dialect of the Florentines, which is so graceful and harmonious even
in its homeliness.
The seventeenth century was remarkable for the prodigious number of its
dramatic authors, but few of them equaled and none excelled those of the
preceding age. The opera, or melodrama, which had arisen out of the
pastoral, seemed to monopolize whatever talent was at the disposal of the
stage, and branches formerly cultivated sank below mediocrity. Amid the
crowd of theatrical corrupters, the name of Andreini (1564-1652) deserves
peculiar mention, not from any claim to exemption from the general
censure, but because his comedy of "Adam" is believed to have been the
foundation of Milton's "Paradise Lost." Andreini was but one of the common
throng of dramatic writers, and it has been fiercely contended by some,
that it is impossible that the idea of so sublime a poem should have been
taken from so ordinary a composition as his Adam. His piece was
represented at Milan as early as 1613, and so has at least a claim of
priority,
Menzini (1646-1708) and Salvator Rosa (1615-1675) were the representatives
of the satire of this century; the former distinguished for the purity of
his language and the harmony of his verse; the latter for his vivacity and
sprightliness.
15. HISTORY AND EPISTOLARY WRITINGS.--The number of historical works in
this century is much greater than in that of the preceding, but they are
generally far from possessing the same merit or commanding the same
interest. The historians seem to have lost all feeling of national
dignity; they do not venture to unveil the causes of public events, or to
indicate their results. Even those that dared treat of Italy or its
provinces, confined themselves to the reigning dynasties, and overlooking
the causes which most deeply affected the happiness of the people,
described only the festivities, battles, and triumphs of their princes. A
large number of historians chose foreign subjects; the history of France
was remarkable for the number of Italians who endeavored to relate it in
this age. The work of Davila (1576-1630) on "The Civil Wars of France,"
however, throws all the rest into the shade. What gives to it peculiar
value is the carefulness with which the materials were collected, in
connection with the opportunities its author enjoyed for gaining
information. This history is considered as superior to that of
Guicciardini in its matter, as the latter excels it in style. It is
wanting in that elegance which characterized the Florentine historians of
the sixteenth century. Bentivoglio (1579-1644) was an eminent rival of
Davila; he wrote the history of the civil wars of Flanders; a work
remarkable for the elegance and correctness of its style. Above all stand
the works of Sarpi, who lived between 1552 and 1623, and who defended with
great courage the authority of the Senate of Venice against the power of
the Popes, notwithstanding their excommunication and continued
persecution. His history of the Council of Trent contains a curious
account of the intrigues of the Court of Rome at the period of the
Reformation.
It was chiefly in the more showy departments of literature that the
extravagance of the Marinists was most conspicuous, and the decay of
native genius was most apparent. But this genius had turned into other
paths, which it pursued with a steady, though less brilliant course. Of
all branches of prose composition, the epistolary was the most carefully
cultivated. The talent for letter-writing was often the means of
considerable emolument, as all the petty princes of Italy and the
cardinals of Rome were ambitious of having secretaries who would give them
_éclat_ in their correspondence, and these situations, which were steps to
higher preferment, were eagerly sought; hence the prodigious number of
collections of letters which have at all times inundated Italy--specimens
by which those who believed themselves elegant writers endeavored to make
known their talent. The letters of Bentivoglio have obtained European
celebrity. They are distinguished for elegance of style as well as for the
interest of those historical recollections which they transmit; they are
considered superior to his history. But of all the letters of this or of
the preceding age, none are more rich, more varied, or more pleasing than
those of Redi, who threw into this form his discoveries in natural
history. The driest subjects, even those of language and grammar, are here
treated in an interesting and agreeable manner.